Beth Rudden

Business & technology leadership

Beth Rudden.

I build and lead teams that turn complex problems into systems people can understand, trust, and use.

I connect technical depth with business judgment—and a lifelong curiosity about people—to help institutions serve their communities better.

Read my full CV Download CV · PDF

Founder & CEO, Bast AI · IBM Distinguished Engineer, appointed 2016 · Board trustee · Author

Beth Rudden at SXSW EDU, wearing blue glasses and an almond-blossom scarf
At SXSW EDU · Technology, learning, and human possibility.

The work, connected

People. Institutions. Possibility.

Explore my leadership →
01 / Lead

Build the team and the business.

I have owned and grown businesses, developed leaders, and brought people together around problems worth solving.

02 / Build

Make knowledge useful.

At Bast, I lead engineers and domain experts building AI that makes answers traceable and uncertainty visible.

03 / Serve

Help institutions help people.

Through board service, teaching, writing, and public leadership, I connect technology with the lives it affects.

How I see the work

Understand the people.
Build what helps.

My background in anthropology and engineering shapes how I lead: understand the people and the mission, make the problem clear, and build the organization capable of solving it.

That thread connects a 23-year career at IBM, founding Bast, and serving institutions dedicated to science, education, and care.

Read my story →

The work in five outcomes

What that leadership
has made possible.

  1. Led IBM's workforce transformation, upskilling and reskilling 23,000 people in 16 months.
  2. Created the data-science profession through which more than 10,000 data scientists have been certified globally.
  3. Owned and grew two P&Ls by double digits, helping establish the foundation for AI at IBM.
  4. Created technology spanning 27 issued IBM patents and five Bast patents.
  5. Built Bast over four years, securing $1.5M in revenue and $750K in investment.

Writing & conversations

Ideas I’m working through.

More writing →
Essay

Data is a belonging of human experience

Ground Truth

Bast’s fourth anniversary and the opening of its ontology manifesto; supporting caregivers through understandable information.

Talk

Who Did the Work?

WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America

Sponsorship, developing talent, and human accountability as AI changes how work gets done.

Service & stewardship

Beyond the company.

I serve on the boards of trustees of the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Maryville University, and on the advisory board of Northwestern University’s Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence.

These roles connect the things I care about: how people learn, how knowledge is shared, and how institutions earn trust.

Board service & public leadership →